David sings in Psalm 40 of God’s wonderful works. He says in the spirit of praise: “Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to usward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered” (v 5).
We begin with God’s wonderful work of creation. The whole universe is immense, and so much of it is beyond our knowledge. If we think of our own solar system, with all the planets revolving around the sun in fixed orbits, should we not marvel at God’s wisdom and power in setting it up and keeping it in operation? Should we not further marvel at the position of the earth – not too close to the sun, where it would be too hot for life; and not too far from the sun, where it would be too cold? God speaks of Himself as “the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else” (Is 45:18). We are to consider God’s greatness as we look around us and see His wonderful works in many and various aspects of His creation. And we are to worship Him.
Immediately after the creation, God pronounced it all to be “very good” (Gen 1:31). But it did not continue in that condition; sin entered. Not only did mankind now have a fallen, sinful nature – he was spiritually dead – but his life was to come to an end and he was under the fearful sentence of eternal death. Besides, the whole creation was under God’s curse; so “thorns and thistles” were to grow where man would wish for nothing to spring up except, say, a complete field of grain. So his work involved “the sweat of [his] face” (Gen 3:18,19). Apart from sin, the whole human race would have continued in perfect blessedness, but this could not be the case any longer.
But there is an even more wonderful work than creation: redemption – God delivering a large part of mankind from sin and its consequences. He did so in perfect conformity to His absolute justice. If sin was to be forgiven, the punishment justly due because of it could not be avoided; a substitute must endure the punishment instead. This was illustrated throughout the Old Testament age: whenever a sacrifice was offered, an animal died instead of the person for whom the sacrifice was made. The animal died as a substitute for the sinner. Yet no such substitute could actually take away sin (see Heb 10:4), but the sacrifice removed some of sin’s temporal consequences. The people of these times were being taught that a substitute would yet be found who could really take away sin and its consequences.
But who could that substitute be? First, the substitute must be perfectly holy, as was illustrated in the animal sacrifices being “without blemish”. Further, the substitute must be able to endure the full punishment of all the sins of all those whose place he was to take before God, who must punish the guilty. So we should admire the wonderful provision that God has made of a sinless substitute who could endure the terrible punishment due to all that were to be saved. The substitute, as the Bible clearly teaches, is the eternal Son of God, who took to Himself a true human nature, in which He could suffer. God cannot suffer; suffering cannot enter the divine nature. Yet God the Son could suffer, but only in His human nature; neither suffering nor death could penetrate beyond the human nature. As we notice the wonderful provision God has made, in the Person of Christ, for sinners, let us seek to worship both God the Father, who made the provision, and the One whom He sent “to be the Saviour of the world” (1 Jn 4:14).
The wonderful work of bringing the divine Saviour into the world was revealed by the angel to His mother Mary in these words: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Lk 1:35). As holy, He was fit to carry out the wonderful work that had been assigned to Him from eternity. Yet He had to say to His Father: “My sins are not hid from Thee” (Ps 69:5). Yes, the Holy One speaks of His sins; but they were the sins of His people, and the Father laid them upon Him. God made His Son responsible for bearing their guilt – for bearing the punishment due to them because of these sins. And how wonderful is the willingness of Christ to do the whole work that the Father laid upon Him: “I delight to do Thy will, O My God” (Ps 40:8).
How wonderful that the One who was crucified in weakness was still in control of everything! He continued to reign as King even in the depths of His sufferings. It was the King of all the earth that cried, “It is finished” (Jn 19:30). He knew that He had satisfied divine justice by His sufferings, on behalf of His people, and that all that now remained for Him to do was – still acting as King – to lay down His life. These sufferings lasted for a relatively short time, but they were the sufferings of an infinite Person, and therefore they had infinite merit; so they could take away the infinite guilt of sin. God the Father was perfectly satisfied with the work of Christ, and so He raised the Saviour from the dead on the third day. Christ Himself was equally satisfied, as we read, “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (Is 53:11). We too should be satisfied with the saving work of Christ; we ought to trust in Him at once, for His work perfectly suits the needs of sinners of every kind. How gratefully the people of God should say with Paul: “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift” (2 Cor 9:15).
Having finished His work on earth, Christ “entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption” (Heb 9:12). He has entered heaven, from where He is applying redemption to those for whom He died. It is another wonderful work, for needy sinners. He takes them, guilty and polluted as they are, and brings them into His kingdom. He gives the Holy Spirit to apply the Word of truth to their souls and brings them to understand, in some degree, their need as sinners.
The Holy Spirit further applies the Scriptures to them, enabling them to look to Christ as the Saviour who died as the Substitute for sinners. Their looking to Christ, their believing in Him, is only possible because of the wonderful work of the Spirit in creating new life in their hearts, on the basis of Christ’s redeeming work. Further, they are justified by faith – they are accepted as righteous in God’s sight, for Christ’s sake, because of what He did for them in suffering unto death for them, and also in keeping the law in their place. They could do none of this for themselves; Christ did all this for them as their Substitute. He will finish the work of salvation, so that He can bring them to heaven at last, for “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25).
“When we have said the most we can of the wonders of divine love to us,” Matthew Henry comments, “we must conclude with an etcetera – and such like – and adore the depth, despairing to find the bottom.” It is impossible to number these wonderful works, or to understand any of them completely, but it is right to try to praise the Lord for what He has done. Micah’s words of praise are suitable for today’s believers to use: “Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (7:18,19). Such praise will be imperfect in this life but, when the wonderful work of sanctification has been completed, they will praise God – Father, Son and Holy Ghost – in heaven for ever, and will do so perfectly.
Literally, and the rest.